In 1976 Keizo Kitajima, Daido Moriyama, Seiji Kurata opened an independent gallery named CAMP in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, along with several other photographers. Kitajima held 12 month-long exhibitions throughout 1976, each accompanied by the publication of a 16-page booklet entitled PHOTO EXPRESS: TOKYO. (Reprinted 2011 by Steidl Publishers)

Keizo Kitajima’s 1980 publication Shashin Tokkyubin / Photo-mail from Tokyo (写真特急便［東京]) combines some of his previously exhibited and published works from PHOTO EXPRESS: TOKYO with his colour work from that period. Kitajima’s photographs are radical in every way. One can clearly sense where his roots are (ie. the visual language of the late 1960s Provoke group), but with these works he is moving a step aside, finding his own unique photographic style. The Punk movement was in full bloom, sending cultural shock-waves around the world. Kitajima’s high contrast black and white works are electrifying, and the majority of the colour works in this book are playful and sexually provocative images perfectly capturing the zeitgeist.

Opening Shashin Tokkyubin / Photo-mail from Tokyo (写真特急便［東京］) one finds a double-spread fold-out poster. It shows snapshots from the CAMP gallery events in 1979 on one side, and a pink/yellow-coloured black and white photograph (also included in the book) on the other.

In 1981 the remaining copies of the book were sold with a newly designed obi-band (shown below).

Shashin Tokkyubin [Tōkyō] / Photo-mail [Tokyo] (写真特急便［東京］北島敬三写真集)

Published by Paroru-sha, Tokyo 1980

Soft cover with dust jacket and obi-band

18.1 x 25.7cm

152 pages (plus 1 folded poster / double-page gatefold)

Dust jacket front and back

Cover front and back

Fold out / poster back

Fold out / poster back

Poster front

Endpaper

Order slip and publishers postcard

First edition book with second version obi-band from 1981, front and back

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